Instructables user Saul shows us how to make an easy chalk holder from a piece of bamboo. If there’s none in or around your back yard, maybe they have small decorative pieces at your local import store, or maybe even the thrift store! This should be useful for all you schoolteachers out there who’ve yet to change over to a white board.

Becky Stern (sternlab.org is a DIY guru and director of wearable electronics at Adafruit. She publishes a new project video every week and hosts a live show on YouTube. Formerly Becky was Senior Video Producer for MAKE. Becky lives in Brooklyn, NY and belongs to art groups Free Art & Technology (“release early, often, and with rap music”) and Madagascar Institute (“fear is never boring”).